We saw the comet!
My wife Jeanette and I drove out on Ronald Reagan Blvd north of HWY 29. We found it nice and dark there and I had done my homework as to how to see the comet. I used a nikon D300 with a 600mm lens and simple matrix metering to make this shot.
In Austin, the best time to see the comet last night (3-11-13)was 50 mins after sunset (at about 8:25pm CDT). Once the sky got that dark, we easily spotted the comet with binoculars, about 15deg right above the point where the sun had gone below the horizon almost an hour earlier (we had lined ourselves up with a distant street sign right where the sun went below the horizon, so we would have a reference). Tonight we may not need a sundown reference since a sliver of the crescent moon will be your reference to the right of the comet. We found it very difficult, if not impossible, to see the comet without binoculars or a telephoto lens. We will try to send better photos with the moon tonight.
Ted Keller
